


He Screams From The Rooftops: "Gay"

by chargedfear



Category: Muse
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Dorks in Love, Fluff, High School AU, M/M, sounds like crack isn't crack, teen!muse, teenagers doing teenage things, these tags went downhill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 21:41:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chargedfear/pseuds/chargedfear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt Bellamy can't make him mind up about anything other than the fact that he's a flaming homosexual and wants to fuck his best friend. Add a Halloween party and some homophobic peers and he's set.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on my lj. posted here because idk plus i can, so.

Even from a young age Matt had never been able to choose a side.

That doesn't mean that he is apathetic, he is definitely not, but many believe so because of his sheer reluctance to make up his mind. It isn't even his fault, not really. He can't help that he can see each story from each side easily, that he can relate to them both and by the time it's time to make a decision he'll be completely taken by both options, and therefore completely on the fence.

His father used to take him to the cafe after his swimming session and get him his favourite type of burger: a cheeseburger without cheese. He always cut it up into tiny pieces, even when Matt hit his teens and even when he stopped swimming. Then it would always come to the end of their meal and Matt would face _the choice_. It was always the hardest part of the week, what type of ice-cream to get. He liked ice-cream. He liked chocolate, he liked strawberry, he liked caramel and he liked the house specials. They would sit for a good fifteen minutes, his dad laughing good-naturedly at his obvious struggle, because really ice-cream wasn't something to get so worked up about. But he was Matt and decision-making was never his thing.

He still doesn't have a favourite type of ice-cream, but he must say that he's quite keen on the tiramisu flavour they introduced, and he really likes chocolate and strawberry and caramel... And all of them, actually, now that he thinks about it.

He's never been able to choose between coffee and tea either. Tea is great, he's English, of course it is, and it's the only hot drink that really quenches his thirst. But coffee, it perks him up in the mornings (not that he needs it, really) and it tastes great. Really, really great. But an equal greatness to tea. This is his problem.

It's always been this way, two friends would bicker and he'd never choose a side, simply because he couldn't.

That lead him to the problem. Currently, nobody knew his "secret"; that being that he is a flaming homosexual. No shame there, really. He likes boys and he wants to bang his hot neighbour that happens to be male.

In fact, it's his neighbour that finally leads him to realising that he wants the brains fucked out of him and that he really does not fancy doing the same to a female. Actually, he doesn't even really like the idea of topping until he Googles what gay sex is (his mum had taught him the basics of hetero a year previous, and he's heard it all from his mates) and decided that it is really fucking hot. He finds his dominant streak, then, and decides that alongside being the one receiving the pleasure, he'd love to be the one to control, to watch his partner fall apart beneath him and-

He clears his throat and chews his pen. He really doesn't feel like popping a boner halfway through summer revision.

Especially not because he's fantasising about his hot neighbour.

Mr Howard, he's called, blond hair, tanned skin; utterly fuckable to say the least. He's taller than Matt and older, more experienced (yes, he just went there) but he's not gay. There's always a downer to everything and in this case it's the pure waves of hetero that seem to exude from him.

Mr Howard is hot and yet also completely and utterly impossible.

#

School starts again on the fourth of September.

Matt has had almost a whole summer of staring at Mr Howard (plus one very awkward dinner that his mother invited him over to which consisted of lots of mumbling), revising for exams, pissing around on his guitar and debating with himself as to whether he should come out.

He's not ashamed; quite frankly he doesn't have time for the bullshit of people using his sexuality as an excuse to get a bit of their own pain off their chest, so that's not the problem. The problem is he has no idea how to do it.

He's deliberated and kinda sorta almost decided that he wants his coming out to be extravagant, but so far, nothing has come together.

In his first maths class of the year he rips out a page from his book and scrawls along the top in the best italics he can manage: _I'm gay yo_. Then he underlines it. Then he draws a rainbow and then a unicorn on top of the rainbow and then he circles it with hearts. Then he writes _wow how gay_ next to it and folds the sheet into his pocket.

So far? Inconclusive.

#

In drama he adds _gay musical_ but doesn't elaborate. Then he adds _dramatic speech_. Then he thinks for a while before adding _leaping out of the closet and screaming "I'm homo"_.

At break time Kelly hugs him and sits him down at one of the tables lining the field and proceeds to lecture him about how he really needs to get out more and how little she saw of him over summer. He takes it all good-naturedly, grinning and smiling at her threats (he doesn't know what they mean, specifically, but they sound medieval and bloody).

"Anyway," she starts, slipping a strand of brown hair behind her ear, "there's a new English teacher and I hear he's really hot."

Matt shrugs.

"Not that you'd really care, but y'know, I think you might have some competition from the ladies now. He's stealing your spotlight."

Matt giggles at this; Kels knows for sure that Matt is not the popular guy (that would be Jonas, who Matt has to admit is rather attractive) and swats her away when she coos at his tongue sticking through his teeth.

"I would bang you, Matt, I would." She says, ruffling his hair and laughing again as he pouts and tries to righten it. "You're mega hot, I don't know how people don't just grind against you at bus stops."

Matt blushes. "I'm not hot Kels, stop flirting."

"You know you love it really."

"I do." Matt huffs jokingly, slapping Kels' hand away from his hair, to which she replies "but it's so fluffy!"

Kel's grabs Matt's planner, flipping to the reverse side and checking his timetable. She stares inquisitively at it, frowning when she sees some initials she doesn't recognise.

"DH? That's the new teacher, y'think?" She asks, but Matt doesn't have time to respond as the buzzer rings signalling next lesson. "I'll see you!" She waves, wading into the thick current of year sevens that are all seemingly a foot shorter than her.

#

Mr Howard is stood at the door of his English classroom and Matt finds himself blushing madly. In a suit, he looks older and more formal and quite frankly extremely intimidating. He looks exactly what he is: a god knows how much older, straight divorcee. He smiles at him, greeting him in a stiff but politely familiar tone and then checks his seating plan. He directs Matt next to a boy in the back corner and Matt gulps before sitting down awkwardly.

The kid is new, Matt doesn't recognise the top of his head (his head is rested on the desk and is yet to rise) but doesn't look uncomfortable. In fact, he looks asleep.

Matt clears his throat and the kid sits up quickly, looking around in surprise for a moment then deciding that his surroundings aren't that dangerous. He meets Matt's eyes and grins and Matt's jaw is miraculously still in place. The kid looks like Mr Howard, but younger and hotter and less stern looking and slightly tireder. The corner of Matt's mouth turns up as he returns the smirk on the kid's lips and he tries to keep his moan internal.

"I'm Dom." The boy says, "sorry that I was kinda asleep, I stayed up till five drumming."

This time Matt can't help it and his mouth pops open. "No way! I was too! Well, kinda, but I play guitar."

Dom nods, "that's cool, you look the type." Mr Howard claps his hands at the front of the class but Dom ignores him and continues. "Don't talk about drumming too loud, dad hates it when it's five am and he wouldn't half love to embarrass me on the first day."

Matt looks questioningly at Dom before putting two and two together.

Dom x Dad = Mr Howard.

Ah.

"Mr Howard's your dad?"

"Yeah, moved in with him last week. Him and my mum divorced."

Matt nods and then his face lights up. "Hey, how are you getting home tonight?"

For a second Dom looks confused and almost a little scared but quirks his shoulders in a slight shrug and his smile returns. "I'm walking, dad would gimme a lift but he had to stay for a meeting."

"Well, do y'want to walk with me? I am your neighbour after all."

#

"Matt, you know you said you weren't hot? Yeah, well, you lied. My mate Ellie wants to fuck you- I mean date you." Kels pauses and Matt rolls his eyes.

"They all do."

"Yeah, yeah, stop bragging, so can I set you up now or?"

Matt thinks for a second. Come out? Decline her offer and look like a douche? Say yes and protect his sexuality and not break any hearts?

"No." He says a little too firmly and Kels shoots him an incredulous look. Then she points at Ellie and grabs her boobs and whispers "they're bigger than mine though".

_I'm gay_ Matt considers saying; it'd be a hell of a lot easier than trying to excuse the fact that he doesn't really care for boobs. He'd quite like to touch some though, just to see what all the rage is about. They seem squidgy and cool. And bouncy.

He doesn't, though, or at least he doesn't think he does.

"Of course you are! I knew it! I knew it!" She hugs him and then kisses him plain on the lips and then both cheeks and then his forehead before pulling him into another hug. "Oh my god Matt! I kinda thought maybe but then last year when I asked and you said you kinda wanted to grope Lara's boobs, so I just thought that you liked the pussy. I thought you had a crush on her, I even tried to set you up!"

She hugs him again whispering something about being "so proud" and then they're interrupted by a certain blond.

Unbeknownst to them, he witnessed the whole encounter and without even deliberating he sits down next to Matt and says without faltering: "I'm gay too."

#

"So how did you realise you were gay?" Dom asks on the walk home. They've been walking for around ten minutes in, surprisingly, comfortable silence. Ever since the double come out thingy, as Matt calls it, it's been pretty cool. They sat next to each other in geography and talked all lesson, getting to know each other and never ran out of topics.

Matt almost tells him, almost blurts out that his neighbour (Dom's actual real life dad) is kinda hot but catches himself. He could tell him that, be honest, or-

"Alex Turner is really hot." Matt chokes out. He's not fully sure where it came from, even if it is true to an extent, but he runs with it. "I was watching this live video and he was doing this thing with his guitar, like grinding into it and I realised that I wanted to be the guitar." He pauses to gauge Dom's reaction. "And Gerard Way. I think I was actually sexually attracted to his red hair."

Dom hums and nods. "Same... Kinda. I just sorta looked at Zayn Malik one day and thought 'wow I would' and it went from there, y'know? I'm not really a One Direction fan, y'know but fuck man he's hot."

Matt nods, because he does know. Especially with Dom's dad, but he's not going to let that slip. Not now, not ever. And he means that. _Never_. "Anyway, do you want me to show you round school properly tomorrow?"

Dom nods and that's it, fate sealed, even if he doesn't quite know it yet.

#

When Matt collapses into bed that evening with his Mac on his lap, a steaming cup of hot chocolate on his bedside table and a chocolate digestive clutched between his lips he sets to work. His tasks? To find Dom on every social networking site there is and more. He must know more about the hot guy that he's really becoming fond of, even if he's only known him for approximately nine hours.

He finds Dom's Facebook first, easily, all he needs to do is type in Dom Howard and then it's the first result. He grins as he sends the request and grins wider when it is accepted minutes later. His smile increases ten-fold when he looks through Dom's pictures, awkward smile after awkward smile and fluffy hair and grey eyes and-

Crap.

Matt might be developing a bit of a crush. With a sigh he brushes the crumbs off his chest and grabs his mug and takes a sip. The chocolate scolds him mouth and he sets it back down with a grumble, opening Twitter. "It's Dom time." He mumbles, typing Dom Howard in the odd chance that he'll be a large enough account to show up. He doesn't.

It takes him about four minutes of scrolling till he stumbles across an account that is most obviously Dom's. _Dominic_Howard_. Matt reads through the Tweets: _New school today!,,_ , _Going to be in the same class as my dad.. :L_

He has to smother his laughter because even if he hasn't known him for long, he knows for sure that this is Dom's Twitter. It's dumb and nerdy and filled with awkward selfies and so completely Dom. Absolutely, completely, extremely Dom. He's got twelve hundred followers (almost as impressive as his fifteen hundred, he thinks with a smug grin) and a load of favourites on each Tweet and he's kinda popular. In fact, he's surprised that he hasn't seen his account before because they share quite a lot of mutuals.

There's a link to Dom's Tumblr, so after he's followed Dom and looked though half a year of his media (including all of those hot selfies) he opens the link. His Tumblr theme is shit, but it's kinda endearing and he sighs again, hits follow and then spends around four hours scrolling. It's only when the clock reads 4:24 and his hot chocolate is gone that he closes his laptop and settles down to sleep.

#

"This is the smoking line." Matt says and then launches into his explanation of why the teachers had to cordon off the bike sheds because the were too prone to being vandalised and smoked in. Then he leads Dom round the field, points at the table they came out out together at and then sit down.

"That was a brief tour." Dom concludes, raking a hand through his hair and crinkling his nose when he finds the crinkle in the fringe that has started to develop.

The day is cold, September fog already closing in on the UK and the cold and damp coming hand in hand behind. In the horizon the sun is rising, first lesson yet to commence and for a moment they stop and stare at the dusky oranges shining through deep mist. The air clouds with their breath and they sit in companionable silence, just watching.

And then Matt sneezes.

Dom laughs at him and Matt joins in even though he's completely winded (it was an almighty sneeze, he's pretty sure if he'd have sneezed any harder his brain would have fallen out). The bell goes, they stand and head to lesson, Matt pointing out important classrooms and hallways along the way, then part at the end of the maths corridor, Dom waving and shouting something about meeting at break at the table.

Matt happily agrees and spends the next hour solving equations, but with a happy smile on his face because he has a new friend.

#

Kels is already sat at the table when Matt arrives. When he sits down she pulls a flask out of her bag and three cups. "Where's Dom? I brought him a cup too. Want some soup?" Matt laughs at the weirdness of the situation but accepts happily and laughs some more at Dom's reaction to his steaming cup of minestrone.

They sit, sipping on their soup and occasionally warning Dom against people who walk past, mainly Jennifer Cook, who walks past three times and makes it obvious that she is checking Dom out. Dom shudders as she pouts at him and flicks a stand of peroxide blond over her shoulder, hoisting her skirt up till it rests just under her boobs.

"Girls are gross." He remarks and Matt laughs and agrees while Kels looks offended, but she knows what they mean.

#

By October three things in Matt and Dom's ever improving friendship are certain:

1) Matt definitely has a crush on Dom.

2) Kels definitely wants them to be a couple.

3) He really needs to find out what cologne Dom wears because it's really nice and he wants it.

There is nothing Matt wants to do than kiss Dom, except Dom himself, and he realises with a startled gasp that he's done it; he's made up his mind.

He smiles then because he knows that he's going to do it and it's all thanks to Dom. In fact, he notices, since Dom's been around he's made snap decisions and hard choices and he's never stalled. He has a lot to thank Dom for, he thinks, because he's fairly certain that Dom's presence is the reason for his decisiveness. He's not sure why, but Dom brings out the best in him.

Scratch that, he knows why but he really doesn't want to admit to the massive crush he has on the guy that is quickly becoming his best friend.

No one can deny how much more popular he is in school, now, though. Whether it is Dom's looks (likely, Matt thinks) or the newfound self-confidence that Dom has introduced into him but he's noticed how more people smile in the corridors at him and how somebody always wants to work with him.

He puts it down to Dom spreading word of how he's smart and can help with homework, which Dom hinted at doing when he first got invited to sit at the 'popular table'.

Secretly, he's pretty chuffed that people are starting to notice him and, above everything, like him.

That doesn't go to say that he's left anyone behind, though.

The table is still his and Kels', and more recently Dom's too, and people seem to get that. It is their table, only three seats branching from the round table, which is oddly convenient for the threesome, and nobody ever tries to interrupt that. Sometimes people stop off to ask about the maths homework that's due next week, or when their coursework is due in, but never stay long. They are generally left to themselves, a different hot liquid provided by Kels each day shared between them and enough laughter to warm a morgue.

They are happy.

Well, almost.

All Matt wants is Dom holding his hand, kissing him, doing other less appropriate things. And he wants to do them in public, well maybe not the last, but he wants to show Dom off.

But there's two problems:

1) Dom is not his.

2) As far as everyone knows, he's as straight as a ruler.

He laughs to himself quietly. _Yeah, a bendy ruler._

#

"Matt, will you come to my Halloween party?" Kels asks that evening and without even batting a lash he agrees to go. "Dom's going," she adds, "and most of our year."

That's when the plan starts to formulate in his mind.

Halloween is going to be one hell of a night.

#

Mr Howard opens the door for him and invites him into the living room. Dom is slouched into his sofa, chin resting on his breast and a stray lock of blond hair curling over his eye. Matt smiles and sits down next to him, shifting until their thighs and upper arms are touching, Dom's head nearly resting on his shoulder.

Mr Howard sits down in the armchair across the room from them and picks up his laptop, sitting in very much the same position as Dom (like father, like son) and mumbling "cute".

Matt blushes.

They proceed to chat about the Halloween party and possible guests. Kels is more popular than them both and has quite a few older friends and neither are sure of the guest list; Kels likes to be secretive like that. Mr Howard butts in with the occasional "say no to drugs" and whatnot, yet is relatively silent for most of the conversation.

Halloween has fallen on a Friday this year and Dom literally begs Matt to sleepover after the party, which Matt could never say no to anyway.

Mr Howard makes three bowls of pasta a few hours later and they sit at the table, stereo on in the background and discuss which teachers they like and dislike and Mr Howard tells them all the funny anecdotes from the staffroom.

When it's time for Matt to leave and Dom is already heading up to his room to bed, Mr Howard drags him to the side for a 'quick word'.

"Matt, I just wanted to thank you for being Dom's friend. He's not been quite himself recently but you've brought his smile back. Thanks."

Matt blushes all the way to his ears. "You're welcome, Mr Howard." And then Matt opens the front door and waves as he walks down the drive.

That night he clambers into bed happy, cradling his phone where the text from Dom has just come through.

_Literally cannot wait till Halloween!! We gotta get matching costumes man like you're the salt to my pepper?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get really gay, really quickly. A punch gets thrown, but at least there's someone there to pick up the pieces.

“What would you do if you were a woman for a day?” Matt asks. It’s a completely innocent (okay you got him, slightly innocent question) but Dom’s smirk says it all. They’re sat at the table despite it nearing the middle of October and temperatures already feeling sub-zero.

“I don’t know? Wank until I pass out probably.” He replies and Matt sighs.

“Women can’t wank. They don’t really have the… devices.”

Dom pouts. “Shut up.”

Matt rolls his eyes. “Well if I was a girl for a day…” He pauses and waits for Dom’s signal to continue, which he promptly receives. “I’d touch my boobs because I’ve always wanted to do that and put makeup on and wear a mini skirt and stockings. Then I’d probably bang a load of people because vaginas seem cool.”

“All in one day?” Dom asks and Matt snorts, shrugging. “And stockings? Really? Have I discovered something here? Have you got a kink?”

Matt grins and blushes and there’s a shy but sharp glint in his eyes and Dom knows for sure that he’s just discovered something. Something great.

#

Later that week Dom sleeps at Matt’s and they make quick work of a Chinese takeaway and then curl up in thick duvets with _28 Days Later_ turned right down and mugs of hot chocolate cupped in cold fingers. They’re _supposed_ to be watching the film, to get into the Halloween spirit, they reason, but they’ve both been too busy so far trying to stare at each other. Matt’s cat, Sady, is curled up on his knee and Dom is making goo eyes at him as he scratches behind her ear.

“What’s her name again?” He questions as he leans over and strokes down her back.

Matt grins. “Sady. Short for Saddam Hussein. She’s cute.”

“He wasn’t, though. Didn’t you say you got her as a kitten? What the flying fuck possessed you to call a kitten Saddam Hussein?”

Matt frowns as Sady hisses and claws at his hand before stalking off. “That’s why.” He says bluntly and Dom laughs before they fall back into companionable silence.

Matt’s mum brings brownies and then, later, another cup of hot chocolate each. The film ends and for a while they’re too lazy to change it over, so they sit face to face, talking softly. It’s nice, calm, settled, compared to the whirlwind that is school and exams and college applications. They haven’t even mentioned revision even though that was how Matt managed to talk his mum into letting him have a sleepover. When Matt’s mum comes in for a final time that night, or very early morning as it turns out, and tells them that they really ought to sleep and sets the airbed on the floor they curl up together in Matt’s single bed. It’s a mutual decision, just a quick glance at the inflatable mattress and then a glance at each other and then Matt is Dom’s arms and it’s nothing but platonic and cutesy and comfortable.

Except that they both want more.

They lie under two duvets, arms tangled around the other’s waist and talk quietly, warm breath mingling in front of their faces. “I was thinking of dying my hair black.” Matt says after Dom mentions that his hair is going to be super messy in the morning.

Dom hums for a second before reaching out and taking a strand of Matt’s hair in his fingers. “Really? I like it natural.”

Matt laughs. “It’s kinda brown, but then there’s all these weird streaks. Can’t really define it.”

“I like that about you. You can’t really be defined at all. You’re weird and cool and nice all at once and I can’t quite find anything about you that I want to change.” He whispers. For a second he stares at Matt's eyes, grey molten and swirling and then he places a firm but tender kiss to Matt’s surprised lips. Dom tastes like brownies and hot chocolate and there’s a thing that Matt can’t place, but is so perfectly Dom and his hand traces a searingly hot line down Dom’s cheekbone. They don't close their eyes, instead staring into the other's eyes and Matt swears, he swears, that he's so close to Dom that he can see the strands of silver in his iris. Dom pulls away. “I just like you, really.”

Matt blushes and kisses him again, just to stop the compliments and finds that it’s just as sweet as the last. "Stop being so cheesy, it's really gay."

They kiss solidly for half an hour before Matt’s eyelids start drooping, and Dom drags him into his chest where Matt rests his head. He can feel Dom’s steady breaths and he can hear his heart through the flimsy t-shirt and skin and bone and flesh.

Just as he’s falling asleep Dom leans down and into his ear whispers: “you’d look fucking hot with black hair, go for it.”

#

Matt wakes to the sound of sobbing.

In moments he is sat up, fussing over Dom but all he succeeds in doing is wake him up. Dom isn’t even crying. His head snaps round and then his blue eyes widen with a sort of terror that only a son’s would.

“ _Mum?_ ”

She places the tray of breakfast she’s carrying on the floor and steps forward, throwing her arms around him. “Matt, deary. I thought there was something going on with you and Dom, and oh look at you, both of you, oh it warms my heart. My boys, oh come here, Dom lad.” She says all at once, dragging them into the hug and kissing both of their cheeks. “Oh my little angels, puppy love, my Matt’s got a boyfriend and oh thank god it’s someone like you Dom.”

She is still crying as she excuses herself from the couple, both of them blushing crimson and Matt slightly teary himself. They eat breakfast in almost silence, small giggles exchanged occasionally and then they head downstairs, both still in their pajamas. Dom chuckles at the rockets on Matt's bottoms, set with tiny astronauts and stars and when he looks down at his comic book design he can't help but feel a bit jealous.

Dom tries to ignore the way Matt’s dad glares at him when they enter the room, but can’t quite escape his piercing glare and when Matt excuses himself to go to the loo, leaving just Dom and Mr Bellamy in uncomfortable silence in the room, his stomach drops.

“If you hurt my son, I will have to personally hunt you down and hurt you.” Mr Bellamy says in the most threatening tone he can muster and Dom gulps. Then Mr Bellamy’s face brightens almost comically and he laughs. “Oh, son, you should have seen your face. You’re a good lad, you know, you’re good for my boy, I know it.” He says and then stands up, patting Dom on the shoulder and chuckling.

Dom can’t bring himself to explain to Matt why he looks so relieved when he comes back from the toilet and he doubts he ever will.

#

The days tick by painfully slowly, Matt thinks, but eventually the 31st of October is upon them. As a couple, he and Dom are no different to what they were as friends apart from the fact that they kiss now. It’s refreshing, really, to say the least. Kels has been cool, too. She might have flipped a bit when she first found out, but her two gay friends who were obviously infatuated with each other being together, surprisingly didn’t seem like too much of a big deal.

In double English Mr Howard lectures the class on staying safe on Halloween and warns them against alcohol and drugs and underage sex. His eyes never seem far from Dom and Matt can’t help but giggle at the way Dom shuffles in his chair when his father announces: “if you are going to a party, do not do anything that you wouldn’t do in front of me” while staring his son straight in the eye.

The lesson picks up, however, when they get to write their own horror story and Matt eagerly begins to write his vampire slaying epic. An hour and twenty minutes later and they swap stories, Dom proudly handing him the story of a boy named Matt who gets so scared during an ouija board session that he wets himself.

_0/10 for plot_ Matt immediately jots down, frowning as he reads one particularly graphic scene of a bow called Howard teasing him.

“Matt, why does your character go to a butchers to buy steak?”

“Isn’t that what they kill vampires with? A steak to the heart?” Matt says, glancing up at Dom with wide, sincere blue eyes and it takes Dom a second to even gather that Matt is being serious.

“What? No! They kill vampires with a wooden stake through the heart, not a hunk of meat.” He mimes sharpening wood in his hands, “you know, like sharpened wood?”

“But…” Matt tries to protest, but by now Dom is positively howling with laughter and he can’t get a word in edgeways.

He sulks quietly to himself, huffing when Dom lets out an even louder bark of laughter at his mardy expression and goes back to marking Dom’s story.

_The butcher menacingly sliced him a steak, seasoning it with garlic and salt till it was perfect for killing vampires. He gave it to Dave, growly voice warning him against placing the steak in the wrong place on the vampire’s chest and then Dave left the shop._

_He went straight to the vampire’s castle and climbed up the three hundred and forty two stairs so when he reached the top he was out of breath. But just as he was about to go through the old, rickety door a tall, scary vampire jumped out!_

_“Aaargh!” He screamed and tossed the steak at the vampire._

_The steak hit him in the chest and then it howled and fell to the ground and then melted into a gooey red liquid._

_He had done it! He had killed the vampire!_

#

That evening they rush home and then Matt heads to Kels’ and Dom stays at home to get ready.

In the end, he’s veered away from salt just as Dom has decided pepper is not the look for him but they still have a ‘couple costume’ as Kels calls it. It’s pretty damn impressive as well, if he says so himself.

He gives himself a glance in the mirror and bites his lip.

“Matt, you look as hot as fuck.” Kels says, adding a final flick of eyeliner of the corner of her left eye. “Is it too much?” She asks after she looks in the mirror herself.

Matt raises his eyebrows, muttering “hypocrite” and then gives her a good once over. She’s wearing a clinging green dress, spider web tights and Doc Martens and _wow_ she looks hot. Her hair is woven into tiny plaits, small snake heads fixed to the bottom and her eyes are smoky and _fuck_ he knew she’d pull of Medusa. “If I weren't gay I would do you so hard.” He says and she blushes through the chalk on her cheeks. “When did you get so hot?” He questions, because, indeed the question still stands. He remembers her as the chubby eleven year old, just starting high school with no friends, and then the awkward thirteen year old who was starting to come out of her skin a bit, and then the blushing but popular fifteen year old, and then he gasps as he realises that she’s suddenly the beautiful sixteen year old that everyone wants to be with.

He drags her into a tight hug and whispers how proud of her he really is, how happy she is that they've been friends for so long and she returns it with a tear glistening in the corner of her eye.

Later, when the guests are due at her house in mere minutes she produces some startlingly red lipstick and offers it to him. After a moment he accepts and she grins as she hands it to him, heading to the door to open it for the first of numerous times this evening.

Matt stays in her bedroom and stares at himself in the mirror, nerves twisting at his stomach.

#

Dom bursts into the room half an hour later and /i>fuck he’s wearing the tights. The tight blue ones that he said he might wear if he had the confidence and he _did_. He fucking did. The material clings to his thighs and crotch deliciously and _god_ he can see everything. He’s wearing the white shirt with the blue over the top and the red cape and Matt’s mouth is watering and he wants to take him there, right there, rough and hard against the wall but this is Kels’ room and he doesn’t want to smudge his lipstick.

He settles on staring at Dom’s crotch.

And Dom stares at him and he’s starting to feel a little self-conscious.

“Wow.” Is all Dom says before stepping over to him and dragging him to standing position. “ _Wow_.”

And Matt has to agree, he does look pretty hot.

He grins down at his blue corset, tight and strained around his petite waist, resting just above his hips, tied tightly with blue ribbon on his back. The skirt is billowing around his thighs, underskirt tickling the smooth skin and the white lace garter sliding down a toned thigh. His feet knock together in golden kitten heels and he pulls up one sheer stocking, to just above his knee, relishing the way Dom’s pupils dilate with his every move. He adjusts the red bow in his newly dyed black hair, enjoying Dom’s heated stare.

Downstairs the music is being cranked up and Dom grabs Matt, lips slamming together in a violent meeting of tongues and smudged lipstick. And then he pulls away, wiping his lips with the back of his hand and dragging Matt out of the door.

“Classy.” Matt mumbles under his breath as they begin the descent down the stairs.

#

It’s funny how much attention you get when you’re wearing a mini-skirt, Matt thinks.

The whole room has stopped to stare, looking from Matt to Dom, from skirt and stockings to tights and then to their intertwined fingers.

Kelly is the first to clap, and then half of the room is breaking out into cheers while the rest of the guests look confused or minorly scarred (for life). In a bout of confidence Matt never knew he had in him, he drags Dom by his hair to his lips, firm kiss planted on unexpected lips and a delighted cheer rings from Kels’ lips.

Matt feels light, soaring and he briefly wonders what the fuck Kels slipped into his drink before kicking out one heeled foot and screaming “I’m homo motherfuckers! Sit the fuck down and bow to your queen!”

#

“Fuck, I love this song.”

“You like Katy Perry?” Matt’s eyebrows are raised, lips stained red with lipstick and eyes heavily lidded.

“Fuck yes. She’s the only girl I would.” Matt snorts and leans in to kiss him, missing and planting a sloppy kiss the the corner of Dom’s lip.

The music is loud, too loud, reverberating from the speakers to the walls, pounding rhythm in perfect time to the gyrating of Dom’s hips against his own, their conversation hardly audible. His breath comes in short gasps through his nose as his lips meet Dom’s, the kiss heavy and relentless and it takes ounce of self control to not nut the guy that just gagged and his mates that laughed. Instead, he snaps his hips back with equal force, meeting Dom’s with delicious friction.

He shudders a moan.

Matt’s shoulder’s are grabbed from behind, his whole body lurching backward in a sudden movement that he did not see coming in the slightest. The hands are large and dig into his shoulder blades painfully, rooting him forcefully to the spot. “You’re a disgusting fag,” is hissed in his ear in a decidedly terrifying tone, words low and rough.

“I know,” Matt says with a slightly slurred voice, no stammers, nothing, no indication to the very real fear that he’s about to get shanked by some guy that he doesn’t even think he knows. “Smoking is a gross habit, I really need to stop doing that.”

“Right, listen fairy boy-”

“I’m Snow White, not Tinkerbelle, you fucking idiot. Don’t you know your Disney at all?” He interrupts forcefully, winking at Dom. “Next you’re gonna say he’s Peter Pan.”

“Knobhead-”

“No, I’m not a knobhead but I would like a knob in my head, if you know what I mean?” Someone cheers. Someone else laughs. Matt is positively glowing in the centre of the crowd that is forming around him and he shakes the hands off him and turns around. “What do you say then, give me the pleasure?”

Matt knows that the fist is coming. He’s been asking for it, almost begging for it from the start and when the knuckles connect with his cheekbone, knees buckling with the force of the impact and a high-pitched giggle, despite everything, managing to formulate in his throat he finds it very difficult to feel any surprise. He _is_ shocked by how much force the punch was thrown with, how much energy and power in the blow. He’s also surprised when Dom’s arms clutch onto his back as he falls.

There’s a collective gasp from the crowd and then the sound of a fist on skin and Matt flinches but the only hands to touch him are Dom’s, soft and warm on his back.

He watches as Chris Wolstenholme decks Jonas (so much for him being hot) and then as Kels kicks him between the legs while he’s vulnerable on the floor. With the darkest face she can muster (it’s fucking terrifying and even Matt has to look away) she hisses “get the fuck out of my house before I kick you so hard you’ll be throwing up your own bollocks.”

Jonas runs. Or limps.

The crowd cheers.

#

“I KISSED A GIRL AND I LIKED IT!”

“Matt, shut up.”

“IT FELT SO WRONG, IT FELT SO RIGHT.”

“Matt, you missed some of the lyrics. Seriously, shut the fuck up, you’re going to wake my dad up.”

“I did though! Girls are so icky! She was all ‘mmm lemme lick your mouth you’re hot I like you I want you why don’t you leave Dom and come with me’ and I went ‘no, no’” he shakes his head aggressively and then staggers over, giggling manically, “‘I’m with Dom, but if you want to join in...’ We’re gonna have a threesome with Ellie, Dom! She said she’d invite Lara, too!” Dom hauls him up by his armpits, throwing an arm around his waist and dragging him down the path toward his house.

Matt’s heels are held in his spare hand and he chuckles as he watches the ribbon in Matt’s hair slip over his eyes. “Matt, you’re drunk.”

“Aaaaand?”

“You played spin the bottle with a load of horny teenagers and now you’re set on a threesome with one of them.”

“Foursome. And she’s hot!”

“You don’t even fucking like girls! You’re impossible.”

“I said the same about your dad.”

“Shut the fuck up.”


	3. Chapter 3

Mr Howard opens his son’s bedroom door. He's been knocking for the past five minutes, and besides, what's the worst his teenage son and his friend - boyfriend - could be doing?

Dom is sleeping soundly, wearing a pair of rocket pyjamas which are obviously not his (far too tight) and his old Queen t-shirt. He is snuffling into his pillow, blond hair crinkled around his face and mouth gaping in silent snores. It's almost normal, almost, but his eyes trail over to the figure sprawled across the bed alongside Dom and shudders.

Laying there in all of his glory is none other than Matthew Bellamy, half naked and shivering. He stares for a moment, soaking in the boy's appearance. His lipstick is smeared along his jawbone, black hair fanned around his face in a dark halo. There's a dark trail of bruises down his neck and collarbone (god, they're not are they?) that are obviously love bites. Mr Howard shudders because it's no doubt that his son is responsible for them. He is cringing more and more as he looks at the boy's bare chest (wow, he's a skinny little bastard) and then his eyes settle on the (fucking fuck fuck) lacy (shit fuck bollocks) thong that he is wearing. He averts his eyes as quickly as he can, but he's damn sure that the image is engrained on his retina forever. He tries to avoid looking at the garter that is around a stocking clad ankle, tries to ignore the way the boy's arm curls around his son's waist, the lipstick staining Dom's lips.

Mr Howard wants to leave (fuck, if he could just disappear completely he would) but Dom's window is open and it must be almost sub-zero and he is very aware that Matt is most probably freezing his tits off. He picks the duvet from Dom's floor up, draping it over the couple and quickly stepping back.

His lips twitch almost unconsciously when Matt shuffles closer to Dom, burying his face into his son's blond hair and whispering, "thank you."

Mr Howard is closing the window when he hears Matt murmur "love you Dom" and suddenly he doesn't mind having to sort the pair of them out so much anymore.

#

Matt wakes up nuzzled into Dom's side. He's warm and comfortable and blissfully happy in the embrace. The blanket over them is heavy and warm, heavy and warm, heavy and warm.

He's too hot.

He turns over in bed and promptly throws up-

Dom wakes up and recoils, flailing a bit and cringing at the retching noises Matt is making.

-into the conveniently located bucket that he's nothing short of thanking god for.

Dom scrambles closer, scraping the hair from Matt's forehead as he throws up, giggling when Matt hisses at him to move.

Matt flops onto his back, shivering slightly with a sheen of sweat collecting on his forehead. Dom wrinkles his nose at the bucket and busies himself with dumping it in the bathroom (dad can deal with it) and getting a flannel to clean Matt with. And a toothbrush, because if Matt's mouth is anywhere near as fluffy as his own then he'll need it. Plus he just vomited, so his mouth probably tastes like something died. (His dignity).

But when he returns Matt is snoring softly, sprawled across the bed with his limbs each sticking out at a fairly awkward angle. Dom rolls his eyes and pushes him over, slapping the cold flannel to Matt's head before curling up beside him again, this time with the covers off.

#

Matt wakes with a groan, a stretch and a banging headache that starts somewhere in his eyeballs and ends in his fucking little toes.

So yeah, maybe this is the hangover from hell that he was kinda expecting, but also not completely prepared for.

He rolls over and pokes Dom in the side, right in the rib where it tickles, and Dom swats him away, fumbling around on the bedside table for something. He murmurs a quiet, "aha" and then grabs Matt's phone. He attempts to type the password in with his eyes shut twice before realising that he's undoubtedly gonna fail and end up locking the phone.

Matt pads out of the room, muttering something about his head and Dom grunts a half-hearted response, because he doesn’t have the faintest what Matt just said. Like, really.

The screen of the phone looks blurry with one eyelid cracked open, Dom realises, so he dismisses the little message that says "Facebook: 108 new notifications" until he realises that, shit, that's right. All previous exhaustion is expelled almost instantaneously and sharply replaced with curiosity, tapping at the screen until Facebook pops up.

He’s almost surprised that the whole timeline is talking about the party, but then they’re all teenagers, there’s nothing more important that the newest gossip.

Now, what’s the source of all of those notifications?

As it turns out, it’s a video, a fucking video, of Matt and Jonas’ encounter (jesus christ it’s _hilarious_ ). There’s 89, no, 90 likes and counting (Dom does the maths, that’s over half of their whole year) and a shitload of comments and god, is there anyone who isn’t talking about it?

Dom scrolls through the comments for a bit, likes almost all of Kels’ ( _fuck u motherfuckers i am fucking out u homophobic cuntflaps u wanna mess w/ someone mess with me or even better yet fuck with chris i dare u motherfuckers i will dickpunch u so hard_ ) and then pauses at a certain one.

_Marilyn Bellamy: I see you had a good time last night, Matthew._

It is the most popular comment on the video. Dom can’t help sniggering into his hand because, oh Lord this is good, Matt is really in for it.

When Matt comes back, glass of water half empty (it’s one of those days) and swallowing a paracetamol, still shirtless and stockinged, Dom has to admit that he is kinda worried about what’s gonna happen to them.

Like, sure, it’s all fun and games until someone gets punched. Which, when he thinks about it has already happened, so really it’s not fun and games anymore anyway. He’s more worried about Matt than himself, if he’d ever admit it, because Matt won’t let anyone say shit about him. It’s normally a great trait to have, but Matt will undoubtedly get himself into far too much trouble in this case. Trouble that his scrawny little arse can’t hold off himself.

He’s also worried about Matt, but for a completely different reason. Oh yes, Matt’s mother has left a lasting note on the video, which means she knows what last night was like. She also called him Matthew. _Matthew_. That never happens, as far as Dom can tell and as Matt has told him, which leads him to the conclusion that Mrs Bellamy is very, very pissed off.

So far: everything has gone tits up.

So, naturally, Dom laughs.

#

He has to explain to Matt exactly why he’s laughing, down to the smallest detail, which would be annoying even if it wasn’t Matt. But it is Matt, who sits and fidgets and daydreams and makes him repeat himself an unholy number of times. Matt is annoying, fullstop.

When he’s done explaining (forty-fucking-five minutes later) Matt groans and throws his head back, “I am so annoyed.”

“What? That someone filmed you and put it on Facebook?” Dom questions, almost smirking.

"No, what I'm saying is that I'm vaguely pissed off that I'm alive.” Matt replies and when Dom laughs and calls him melodramatic, he glares and replies, “you try dealing with my mum when she’s pissed off.”

Dom decides really quickly that he doesn’t quite feel like that, like, at all.

#

Matt is grounded for a month, even if his mum can’t quite keep a straight face when she explains why she is disappointed with his behaviour at the party.

That night Matt shoots Dom a final text: _ok my phone is being taken in like 5 but she’s pretty annoyed, but not cos i was a fabulous motherfucker (she was quite proud actually) she’s more upset that i let it get so out of hand but whatevs i’ll see you at school or smth, bye for a month_ and then hands his phone over to his mum, and yes, okay, maybe he pouts a bit, but then who wouldn’t?

He spends the next three hours pissing about on his guitar, writes some lyrics and then crosses them out again, bins them and then retrieves them and sets them to a melody. By the end of the evening, when he’s laid in bed trying to get comfortable, the words drifting in his head set to a beat, tune formulating in his mind and clouding into music. The words seem to float from his subconscious, blossoming into metaphors and burning into his brain.

He falls asleep with the words _im sick of being your stereotype, maybe im someone else, got your head in the skies, leaning back, take that back_ drifting somewhere between his brain and his lips.

The next morning the words seem almost stupid, far too angsty and personal to ever perform, but he writes them down all the same, sings them through and decides that they’re good for nothing but proving to himself what he stands for.

More than anything he doesn’t want to become the stereotype. He wants to be Matthew Bellamy and he wants to be a musician and he just happens to be gay. It seems like a burden, sometimes, when he’s sad or Dom isn’t around, but it isn’t, not really. That’s why he wants everyone to know; because it’s like a part of himself, something he can’t change, like a quirk to his personality or which is his dominant hand. He wants to be extravagant because that’s part of who he is, not because he’s gay. He hates it, hates it so much, but there’s the worry on his mind that he’s going to become that “fairy boy” because that’s not what he is. Because, first, nobody is a fucking fairy boy, nobody, and secondly, he knows when to tone it down, because even though he can sometimes be the loudest little shit in the room, he can just as easily be the unnoticed one with his head down and a thin blush on his cheeks. Because he’s shy, too.

He is Matthew Bellamy, undefinable because you cannot define a human being, and he vows to himself that above anything, his aim in life is to prove that to everyone he ever can.

#

Half term passes in a blur of boring, empty, Dom-less days, dull and quiet. It is no different from how he spent the whole six weeks of summer, he reasons with himself on a particularly lifeless day, but summer was before he knew Dom.

On day five he manages to sneak his phone while his mum is out and checks Facebook.

The storm has passed.

Some girl has had a sex tape since the party of doom, as he’s taken to calling it in his head, and no one seems to care about that awkward guy with a totally hot boyfriend. Which is good going, he figures. Sometimes he’s far too thankful for the quick spread of high school gossip.

#

On day six his mum is sick of him moping and ungrounds him for the weekend. He showers for the first time in four days, puts on a new pair of jeans and a clean Iron Man shirt and heads to Dom’s, little leaps in his steps. He feels he’s just been released from prison or something (and, okay, he kinda has because his mum is pretty strict with the rules of grounding) and knocks four times on Dom’s door.

Mr Howard answers with a smile and explains to him that Dom’s staying at his mother’s over the weekend, “last minute thing,” he says, “she hasn’t seen her Dommykins, he shudders slightly, “in far too long.”

Matt drags his Converse along the ground on the way home.

In the end, the day ends up alright. He calls Kels and she brings junk food and movies and they curl up together in the duvets and she hugs him and makes jokes about being “a Dom replacement”. He rolls his eyes and hits her on the arm and she punches him, then feeds him a piece of popcorn.

He falls asleep halfway through _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_ and has a weird as fuck dream in which it’s him and Dom that’s so vivid he has to pinch himself when he wakes up.

At breakfast, Kels wipes the butter from her crumpet onto his cheekbone and laughs manically for a good ten minutes while his mum watches them both fondly.

All is well.

#

It doesn’t last, of course.

He gets a text from an unknown number, and he feels his stomach twist a little as he reads it.

_hey it’s ellie, me and lara would love to take you up on your offer, especially if dom is involved ;)_


End file.
